A friend on the journey…
The purpose of our church is to help you mature into the person God created you to be which we understand means FOLLOWING Jesus, SHAREing in Community and finding YOUR way to BLESS and serve.
You don’t accidentally become mature, and you don’t reach a point where you no longer need to grow.
On the journey towards maturity it is helpful to have someone who is in your corner, someone who is encouraging you and challenging you to make the choices you want to make in order to grow. That’s what a mentor does.
Our vision for the church is that everyone would have someone who is a few steps ahead of them in life whose task it is to simply encourage and strengthen. A mentoring conversation is one that is focussed on the mentee and helping them identify what they want to change and how they can make the changes they want to make.
This is something we are encouraging all members of Citywide to participate in.
We provide a one hour training session for both mentors and mentees so that both know what to expect.
The mentoring framework
Based on the research of Arthur C. Brooks (as detailed in Build the Life You Want: the art and science of Getting Happier), we understand that a whole life has four main components:
- Faith: A fundamental, whole-of-life, orientation to the reality beyond yourself
- Family: A deep commitment to the relationships we had no choice over
- Friends: Relationships with people who love you for who you are and are not dependant on your usefulness to them.
- Meaningful work: Knowing that you are making a difference in the world through the “love made real” of productive work
Our goal is that everyone has someone who meets with them regularly and encourages them to grow in their faith and love, which will be tangibly seen in their relationships with God, their family, friends and meaningful work (calling).
The mentoring relationship:
Generally speaking, we would attempt to match people with mentors who have slightly more experience than they have. However, the mentor’s primary purpose is not to give advice but rather to ask questions and encourage.
We would initially ask people to commit to six months of mentoring meetings (one meeting per month), after which someone from the church would connect and see whether it is time to move to a new mentor or to continue for another six months after which another review would determine whether it is time for a change or to commit to an additional 12 months. Reviews would then be done annually.
The mentoring meeting would ideally happen in person and be framed around the four outcomes
The mentor’s task is twofold:
- Through listening and encouragement, assist the mentee in naming as clearly as possible their understanding of where they are in each of the four areas of Faith, Family, Friends and Meaningful work.
- Through reflection, listening, prayer, and encouragement to hear their own spirit, we would assist the mentee in naming what goals they want to set so that their “faith is growing more and more” and the love they have is increasing. Towards this end, we would encourage the mentor and mentee to discuss which Follow, Bless, or Share practices might be most helpful to focus on in the coming month.
This would mean that each mentoring meeting has seven agenda items:
- How have you been going with the things you wanted to work on?
- How are you doing with Faith?
- How are you doing with your Family?
- How are you doing with Friendship?
- How are you doing with Meaningful work?
- What is your sense of what God says about the next steps in one or more of these areas?
- Pray for the mentee
The intent is for the meeting to stay focused on the mentee and for them to leave feeling heard and with clear next steps to work towards.
Apply to be mentored or to be a mentor (or both) below